This morning, the Baton Rouge Advocate leads off with the news that none of the major candidates for Governor is signing onto Blueprint Louisiana's "contract." Earlier this summer, I penned two posts on Blueprint Louisiana's funders, as well as their policy goals.
What is interesting about this is that both Democrats - Boasso and Campbell - state policy differences with the health care plank of Blueprint Louisiana's platform:
Provide First-Class Access to Health Care Our state-run health care “safety net” fails to provide adequate access to care. All of our patients, insured and uninsured, deserve a health care system that meets their needs. Responsibility for providing care to the uninsured should be shared by the private and public sectors, with an emphasis on local governance, allowing LSU to focus on world-class medical education and research.
Here's what Campbell had to say about why he was NOT signing Blueprint's contract:
“I can’t agree with them on the hospital system. They want to get rid of the charity hospital system. The only other alternative, privatizing indigent care, will cost about $2 billion more than the state currently spends and won’t be able to serve all the people who need access to care,” Campbell said in a prepared statement.
"Until representatives of Blueprint Louisiana can convince us that their health-care ideas do not constitute a dismantling of the charity hospital or Louisiana health-care system, then we are not inclined to sign it."
Here's what "Bobby" Jindal's campaign spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, had to say:
“Bobby is focused on releasing his own detailed policy plans and is not signing onto the plans of any other groups.”
Pray tell, why might that be, Ms. Sellers? Because "Bobby" is going to steal Blueprint Louisiana's plan and pass it off as his own, like he did with his ethics plan?
Or is he trying to appear not to be in the pocket of Blueprint Louisiana? Fat chance at that ... as quite a few of the folks on Blueprint Louisiana's Steering Committee either gave themselves, or had the companies under their charge give the maximum contribution allowed by law to "Bobby" Jindal's campaign. Here's the list:
(I'll put it in a table delineating their contributions after my last class today)
Bill Fenstermaker - 5000
William J. Dore, Sr. - 5000
Van Pardue - 1000
Mike Polito - 5000
Kevin P. Reilly of Lamar Advertising - 3500 (Sean Reilly is part of the BPL Steering Committee)
Dr. Philip Rozeman - 1000
Virginia Shehee - 5000
Robert Stuart - 5000
